2025:HHC:11216-DB IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA CWP No. 157 of 2019 Decided on: 25.04.2025 Digvijay Singh … Petitioner Versus State of Himachal Pradesh and others … Respondents Coram Hon’ble Mr. Justice Ajay Mohan Goel, Judge. Whether approved for reporting?1 _____________________________________________________ For the petitioner : Mr. P.S. Goverdhan, Senior Advocate with Mr. Rakesh Thakur, Advocate. For the respondent(s) : Mr. Pushpender Jaswal, Addl. AG. for respondents-State. : None for respondent No. 4, hence proceeded ex parte. Ajay Mohan Goel, Judge (Oral) By way of this writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs:- (a) To quash and set aside impugned order Annexure P-3 dated 5.9.2018 and Annexure P-4 dated 17.12.2018, passed by the ld Authorized Officer and the Appellate Authority under the HP Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, respectively, being wrong and illegal. (b) To declare the election of the petitioner to the post of Pradhan Gram Panchayat Kafnoo, Development Block, Nichar District Kinnaur, H.P., as legal and valid. (c) To call for the records of the petition filed under section 163 1 Whether reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2 2025:HHC:11216-DB of the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 from the office of Authorized Officer( Sub Divisional Collector) Nichar, District Kinnar, H.P.” 2. Brief facts necessary for the adjudication of this petition are that the petitioner contested the election for the office of Pradhan, Gram Panchayat, Kafnoo, in the year 2016. His election was assailed by the private respondent inter alia on the ground that the petitioner was disqualified from contesting the election as his father was an encroacher upon the government land as the father of the petitioner himself had applied for regularization of said encroachment to the government. The petitioner contested the election petition by taking the stand that his father had not encroached upon the government land. It was also the contention of the petitioner that his family belongs to Scheduled Tribe pastoral community of Kinnaur District and had vested rights in the forest land for earning livelihood and therefore, the father of the petitioner pursuant to the scheme of the government of regularization of nazaiz kabza had applied for regularization of the land which was in his cultivable possession since the time of his ancestors. The possession of his father was duly recognized and known to the government when settlement took place in the area in the year 1976-1979. Father of the petitioner indeed never filed any affidavit that he had encroached upon the government land and therefore, in view of the 3 2025:HHC:11216-DB provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Right) Act, 2006, as the rights of the scheduled tribe and other forest dwellers stood recognized by the government and the family of the petitioner belongs to the Scheduled Tribe community, they were protected qua their rights in the forests in terms of Section 4 read with Section 3 of the Act supra. It was also the stand of the petitioner that his father had approached the Authorities for recognition of his right. . However, in terms of the impugned order, the election petition was allowed and the petitioner was disqualified from contesting elections as his father was an encroacher upon the government land. Appeal filed against the same was dismissed. . Learned Additional Advocate General submitted that this petition has lost its efficacy as the term of the election which was contested by the petitioner was over somewhere in the year 2021. . Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner submitted that though this is a fact, however, as the authorities wrongly held the petitioner to be disqualified from contesting the elections, this issue needs to be adjudicated. . Having heard learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner as well as learned Additional Advocate General, this Court is of the considered view that in light of the fact that the term of the 4 2025:HHC:11216-DB Panchayat, elections of which were contested by the petitioner, has since ended, rather than conducting the academic exercise of answering the issue raised in the writ petition, as prayed for, this petition is disposed of with the observation that in case, in future, the petitioner intends to contest an election, then the impugned orders shall not come in his way to contest the elections if he is able to substantiate before the Authority concerned that his father cannot be termed to be an encroacher in light of the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, as well as notifications issued by the Panchayati Raj Department in this regard. The writ petition stands disposed of in above terms. Pending miscellaneous application(s), if any, also stand disposed of accordingly. (Ajay Mohan Goel) Judge April 25, 2025 (narender)